As organisations grow, people challenges can become more complex. When it comes to scaling, the most successful businesses anticipate and plan for change, not just react to it after the fact. Understanding the HR trends of today and into 2026 will give you a head start in building stronger teams while protecting performance levels as your organisation expands.
At Omny Group, we support growing businesses to align their people strategy with commercial goals. In this blog post, we explore 10 of the top HR trends shaping modern workplaces and share practical ways you can respond with confidence.
HR Trend 1: Retaining great people is one of the biggest challenges facing growing businesses
Hiring the right people the first time around is enough of a challenge for small organisations – let alone ensuring they stay with you long-term. Employee retention continues to dominate HR agendas because the cost of losing skilled people is high – both financially and operationally.
Growing businesses that successfully retain their talent focus on more than pay alone. They create clarity around realistic progression, invest in regular conversations that build trust, and ensure people understand how their role contributes to wider business success.
You’ll see that employees who feel valued, supported, and aligned with the business direction stay with you longer than those who do not.
HR Trend 2: Confidently navigating difficult conversations is essential for healthy performance
Unresolved issues can quietly eat at productivity and morale. One of the most important HR trends we see is the growing need for managers who feel confident addressing people challenges early and constructively (the latter point being the most crucial!).
If you don’t already, consider investing in improved communication capability at management level to reduce risk, drive engagement, and maintain impactful momentum during periods of change or challenge.
Essentially, if leaders and managers can handle difficult conversations well, they’re more likely to protect relationships and keep teams focused on business outcomes.
HR Trend 3: EDI strategies should be evolving into measurable drivers of business success
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion must evolve into a strategic priority rather than a standalone initiative. This shift – including aligning your DEI strategy with your business goals – will help you naturally embed inclusive behaviours into everyday decision-making and leadership practice.
Approaching DEI with intention, rather than just as a tick-box task, creates fairer processes, strengthens your employer brand, and enables broader perspectives from more diverse groups that better support innovation and growth.
HR Trend 4: Employee wellbeing is now a strategic lever for productivity
There’s been a lot of talk about wellbeing over recent years, and for good reason. Employee wellbeing has moved firmly into the spotlight as one of the most influential HR initiatives affecting overall organisational performance.
Businesses that treat wellbeing as a strategic priority, instead of a reactive response, build more resilient teams which, in turn, reduce absence, burnout, and disengagement.
Think mental health tools from Employee Assistance Programmes and Mental Health First Aiders to physical benefits such as flexible working arrangements, comfortable (and safe) workstation set-ups, and making sure your team carves time in their day for exercise or walking breaks.
HR Trend 5: AI in HR is reshaping how businesses plan, recruit, and make decisions
The rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one of the fastest-moving and constantly evolving HR trends, providing significant benefits when used responsibly. Forward-thinking organisations are using technology to minimise manual tasks, streamline processes (including recruitment), and gain insight into workforce trends – all while keeping people firmly at the centre.
The most effective approach is one that balances innovation with ethics, transparency, and human judgement, ensuring AI supports growth without compromising trust or culture.
HR Trend 6: Aligning HR strategy with business goals creates the foundation for sustainable growth
One of the most critical HR trends for scaling organisations is fully integrated and commercially driven people strategies. If the HR function operates in isolation, effective growth becomes harder to sustain.
As such, aligning your HR roadmap with commercial objectives better equips you to plan for scale and ensures your future people strategy will actively support revenue growth and operational efficiency – in turn, becoming an impactful driver of business success.
HR Trend 7: Flexible working has become a key part of attraction, retention, and performance
Although many differing views on the topic, there’s no doubt that flexible and hybrid working can shape how businesses attract and retain talent. For it to work in your favour and reap the business benefits in everyday working life, you should have a considered and strategic approach to flexibility.
Set clear expectations and policies, invest in effective remote leadership, introduce collaborative tools to strengthen remote culture, and focus on outcomes rather than presenteeism. All of these things can help support employees to work at their very best.
HR Trend 8: Developing strong leaders is essential for scaling successfully
Leadership capability is a major differentiator in high-performing organisations. This HR trend highlights the importance of identifying leadership gaps early and investing in development initiatives before they impact output.
Prioritising strong, consistent leadership creates clarity and momentum across teams. Great leaders enable growth by developing others and driving performance through change, which is over and above day-to-day activity management.
HR Trend 9: Effective onboarding plays a crucial role in long-term retention and engagement
Onboarding is one of the most underestimated areas in HR, yet it has a direct impact on retention and productivity. Growing businesses that invest in structured, thoughtful onboarding usually see that new employees integrate faster, understand expectations clearly, and feel connected to the organisation from day one.
Consider intuitive onboarding platforms to create a strong onboarding experience, which will help reduce early turnover and accelerate valuable business contribution as soon as new starters become part of the team.
HR Trend 10: Meaningful workplace culture is increasingly recognised as a driver of performance
Positive, empowering culture sits at the heart of every successful organisation. The rise in culture on the HR agenda reflects a growing awareness that it contributes to behaviour, decision-making, and results.
Businesses that clearly define their values and ways of working and consistently reinforce them through leadership actions can craft workplace environments where people perform at their best. When your culture is intentional, it becomes a powerful driver of engagement, leading to sustainable success.
Want hands-on support for your people strategy?
These HR trends don’t need to feel overwhelming. With the right insight and support, you can harness them to become opportunities to strengthen your business from the inside out.
At Omny Group, we partner with growing businesses to create practical, people-first strategies that support performance and unlock potential, all while managing risk to keep you safe as you scale.
To discuss how we can help you build a tailored people strategy that supports your growth ambitions, get in touch with us today. We’d love to hear from you.